To make this work we should just always bear in mind that being social is really about us listening and attending to our clients/customers/prospects needs. It is establishing personal relationship with them, making them feel that we truly care and sincere offering the solution to their problems; which timing and the approach are two things that matters.

Social media outreach can be difficult, it's a hit or miss thing(personal opinion). It can get you a faithful customer that will be with you for a lifetime or the best prospect that you won't have forever. However, I am pretty sure that it will be less difficult than to reaching out to a fellow SEO esp. to the influencers in our industry. hahaha.

Guys, c'mon, not all the the people reaching out to you on these social channels always have a dark agenda, there are still some who are very sincere, that perhaps just really wanted to get connected and make friends with you. I am sure this is a sentiment of many that I would just like to speak out.

And for Rand and others, I am pretty aware and I'm now speaking for myself, that I really don't have anything that is of value to you guys but I think there is no problem getting connected and being friends right? :)

PS: I am sorry if I went a bit off topic but I know it's still about being social and outreah. Thanks. Thanks.

But for now, we need to catch up and be extra creative competing with these guys and in the same time be more disciplined and firm doing things the proper way. Like you said, investing in sustainable practices. It may be difficult most of the time but never impossible:. It's basic a principle that man reaps what he sows.

Let me go ahead and check it out.

Thanks again Dan for the great post.

Happy holidays from the Philippines!

PS. For the the grayhat and blakchat people out there, does sleeping easy and sound at night doesn't appeal to you? ;)

I am now wondering what if those bright minds behind all these grayhat/blackhat practices change heart and start to contribute to the whitehat community, with such creativity, the kind of content they can produce, and their ability to adapt to changing trends and environment, do you imagine how beautiful the world wide web can be?

Question. At the moment, should we thank them for their 'contribution', that is because of them search engines continue to improve, or we should not, that is because of them it makes our lives more difficult and complicated? Your thoughts.

I sincerely believe that we can always have something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be material things all the time. We can give our time, our listening ears, a helping hand and various forms of services or in this case, 12 packs of diet coke. :)

When we give generously, when we share bountifully, nature has its way of bringing back what we shared. When we give with a cheerful heart. True giving brings joy to one’s whole being. That in itself is already rewarding. When we give because it is the right thing to do and without expecting anything in return, we will be surprised with what is coming back to us. Just like what happened to this story. :) Great job!

I sincerely believe that when we plant good seeds now and we will reap a harvest of good fruits either in the near or distant future. Like I said before, I am a firm believer that, true giving brings joy to one’s whole being. That in itself is already rewarding. :) Avoid anything evil because its consequence is evil and it’s unavoidable.

And I truly agree with you, that let's all be nice to one another, genuinely nice, because we all can make the world a better place.

It's so nice to look back and review things. I'm sure when you go back, you will always and it's certain that you'll still get something from these people, posts, and comments every single time you visit them.

Great job seomoz, this is concrete manifestation how rich this community is, in terms of content and the people.

I've read that post by Brad a year ago, and I agree, its a great principle, I applied it and indeed works great for me. However, it will be a challenge to inspire other people, your subordinates, to apply and live up to this principle, but if they do, it will surely makes a lot of differences to your organization.

I always believe that the highest calling of a leader is to really inspire other people to realize their highest potential, and be the CEO of not just their job, but CEOs of their lives, that is, someone who take charge and take responsibility of everything that they are doing.

Thanks James. However, I must add up that I sincerely believe that no matter how a person knows his 'shit' we all still have something of value to be shared and contribute; and talking about their 'shit' is really one of the best ways of getting their attention, that you have something that can be of value to them.

It's really a matter of knowing your own 'shit' first, before talking about the 'shit' of others.

I agree, 'talking shit' may hurt, we should just always give out the kind of comments/critcisms that is constructive and helpful towards others. The outcome will always be dependent about the intention why are you ' talking shit'.

People may tend to pay attention when someone talks trash, but above anything else, more than the 'shit' and the 'trash', it will comes down to the value of what you are saying to the subject.

I usually fell on those subtle hints. It touches on the human emotions such as excitement, curiosity, sense of anticipation etc. And will only and always led to dicussions which we can equate to prelaunch promotion.

We all play a very significant role in these launches.

Don't you think we all deserve to give due credits to ourselves for the success of all these successful launches? :)

I agree, I am a Filipino trying to do SEO the proper way, continously educating myself about the industry, and being with the company of great people(seomozzers)

I will prove to you guys that somewhere down the road an SEO from a third world country can be as good as you over here.

The mere fact that it was the SEO guys from the 'first' world countries hiring service providers from our country truly reflects the kind of value we offer. It just so happen that most of my fellows fell on the wrong side of the fence.

Maybe its about time to look and ask yourself, the one giving out the instructions, putting together the SEO plan for the campaigns, hiring people from a third world country like ours.

When a campaign succeeded you take all the credit, but if it fails, you blame your third world country service providers. Don't you think it's fair?

PS: I finally made my first comment here at SEOMOZ, thanks to Jeff. :)